MCEER offers its sincerest condolences to all who have
been victimized by the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001.
Like our family, friends, colleagues, and fellow citizens, we search for answers in
the aftermath of these tragic and unspeakable events. Given the special mission
of MCEER as an earthquake engineering research center responsible to the
citizens of New York State and this country, we are especially motivated to
learn from these events. We must apply lessons learned and focus our research
expertise to create ever safer structures and emergency response systems to
mitigate against future disasters.

From this tragedy, we should find renewed purpose in our work as members
of the disaster mitigation community. We have been leaders in advocating
stringent seismic codes and specifications in vulnerable regions of New York
State. While many eastern states have only a low to moderate probability of a
damaging earthquake, the consequences, should one occur, would be very high.
The recent events are a graphic demonstration of the terrible structural,
economic, social, and emotional damage that disasters can inflict upon our citizens.

We now see more clearly than ever that the public infrastructure must
remain functional after major disasters. Our efforts focus on earthquakes, but
clearly our work to strengthen the disaster resistance of critical facilities such as
hospitals, as well as lifeline and transportation networks, has essential usefulness
in any type of disaster, natural or otherwise, as does our work in emergency
response and recovery. We must continue to contribute our expertise in each
of these areas to improve disaster readiness at the local, state, and national levels.
Further, we must redouble our outreach efforts to build an educated
population. People must be made aware of how they themselves should respond,
and how relief agencies will respond when a disaster occurs. Citizens should
be empowered to make informed decisions when limited resources of a
community must be allocated for many competing purposes.

The events of September 11th, 2001 underscore new threats to public safety,
and our efforts take on an even greater dimension. We must identify the
relevant lessons from this horrific event, learn from them, and refine our goals.
Our multidisciplinary work should strive to make communities not simply
more earthquake-resistant, but more disaster-resistant. MCEER researchers
must continue to pursue our refined aspirations with even greater resolve, for
what we learn from the disasters and earthquakes of today can truly mean the
difference between life and death for people tomorrow.